Examination of Witnesses (Questions 200
- 203)
TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER 2009
MS SARAH
GRAHAM AND
MR MITCH
WINEHOUSE
Q200 Chairman: But what about the
role of the media itself in publicising the private lives of people
in the public eye?
Ms Graham: I think a lot of papers,
a lot of television programmes, a lot of magazines are sold on
the back of addiction. It fills pages and that kind of horrible
journey that somebody goes through is consumed by all of us. We
are all guilty. I think that the media needs to be far more responsible
in terms of carrying health messages and also really simple things
like, if you have a big drug story, put the FRANK contact information
at the end of the article, put some help at the end. Constantly
I am working with journalists. They come to me, they want quotes
on a story and they do not want to give anything in return, some
of these people. They do not want to even put in a simple reference.
People who have got an addiction problem or a family member who
has got an addiction problem, if they see a headline with Amy
when she was in the throes of her addiction, they are going to
read that story. Those family members and those people with the
problem themselves are going to read that story. Why not have
just a little bit of helpful information? Why not have some health
messages in there so it is not just about the blood and guts and
the gore; it is actually about the fact that there is a solution
to this, there is a way out of addiction?
Q201 Chairman: Finally, Mr Winehouse,
on effective treatments, if there was one effective treatment
that you think the Government should focus on as being the one
that would help the most numbers of people, what would that be?
Mr Winehouse: Are we talking about
heroin specifically, because I am not au fait with cocaine?
Q202 Chairman: Heroin is fine, as
an example.
Mr Winehouse: The model in Switzerland
I think is something that we should study. They have been prescribing
heroin to their addicts for the past 15 years. It has just recently
been ratified by a two-thirds majority in the Swiss Parliament.
You could argue that you are rewarding addicts; they now do not
have to go out and steal, they get their heroin free, but while
that is going on they are stabilising and maintaining these people
and helping them to recover. As we have found out, there are no
residential places available for voluntary addicts who wish to
recover, so what are we supposed to do? Just leave these people?
I think we need to be able to help them in some way and, while
we are helping them to recover, it will not be an open-ended prescription;
it would have to have a time limit accompanied by counselling
and therapy, exactly the kinds of things that you would get in
rehab anyway, and while all of that is going on our communities
are suffering less; our communities are not being vandalised and
hurt and robbed and burgled.
Q203 Chairman: Apart from Switzerland,
if there was one place in the United Kingdom you would recommend
that the Committee went to visit which is doing a good job on
rehabilitation, which project would you recommend?
Mr Winehouse: We are closely involved
with a group called Focus 12; they are in Bury St Edmunds. I have
been to lots of rehab facilities, I have had a look round them
and I have been involved with some of them. This was something
else. The rehab facilities that I have seen have been very clearly
delineated. In other words, the addicts were here, the staff were
there; they did not mix. When I went into Focus 12 it was—and
it is a hackneyed phrase—like walking into my grandma's
kitchen because everyone was so warm and so effusive with each
other. I did not know who were the addicts, or clients as they
call them, and who were the staff. It was very nice, and I think
that is the model to follow, but they are being starved of funding.
There is no funding for them. In fact, in June the Director had
to pay his salaries out of his own pocket.
Chairman: We will certainly take your
advice and try and visit them. Mr Winehouse, Ms Graham, thank
you very much for coming. If there is anything you missed out
in your evidence that you feel would be helpful for the Committee
in our inquiry please let us know.
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